The endless list of props. Both projects! There has been a bit of a stall in progress in my projects lately. It is a bit disheartening to work on endless lists and not see any result other than:

Lots of somewhat interesting stuff but it isn't in game and doing anything yet! At least I can get stuff like this done fairly quickly. But it is like someone who is asking you to re-enact an air battle with 100 paper planes, start folding!

In the meantime I decided to set aside some time to a personal project where I can see everything coming together and what the end result is based on the plan I drew up. It is a nice feeling of being in control and the only obstacle to completion being myself for that one lol. I have been following this tutorial to get me started.

Great stuff and I recommend it to anyone wanting to learn a bit more about gamemaker and creating stuff in it. I am trying to adapt it for more a phone environment like an android but the rpg basics still apply.

Until next time, I will be creating more props, working on a 2D game etc... slowly grinding through the world of game design hah!

These last couple weeks I finished up our new hospital. However, the textures still are not quite what we are looking for.

It looks nice, just a bit too weathered. That will be put on hold while the person I am working with finds some references so I can better see what his vision for the level is. The layout is fine, though he did mention forgetting some details; that could be covered by other meshes though. Other than that I have went back and fixed some issues with my house variants. Small holes in the mesh or walls not quite meeting other walls. I am actually getting a good system down for checking that now at least!

All in all the buildings should be pretty well finished model wise (probably not all we need but enough for the early levels). The hospital took the longest seeing as it had to be recreated from scratch for this iteration. Better that than trying to modify the old version though. Better still would be having a well thought out plan for the level from the start so a redo is not necessary.

Other than that just working on some props for another game:

 just some torches and lamps and such for now.



 Also I am collaborating with a friend who wants to knock the dust off his programming skills. He was like: okay you won't pay me but I need to do something or I will never re-learn this stuff. Me: alright, I have like 2 or 3 design docs stashed away and even some sprites you can animate, which one do you want to run with? And away he went. Not much to report on that front yet, but be cool if something does get going! Unfortunately I still have a sinking feeling I will need to take some of these projects and at least start them myself hah. Ah well there is always Udemy or Youtube. Then it is a matter of deciding which engine... *sigh I just wanna describe stuff and have a magic programming genie make it work. I am sure I am not alone there hah.

About time I posted again... Today was a bit of a slow start as snow kind of stopped me from going anywhere for a bit. Thankfully a ride appeared in fairly short order in the form of a car I could use that was not stuck showing up.

Anyways, for the last week I have been remodeling, or rather entirely recreating our hospital level. It just didn't fit what we wanted to do with it. Which goes to show that one should probably not start work or tell someone to create something without a proper plan laid out! However, the old hospital was good practice and I still learned quite a bit creating it. I found I was a lot better at catching and fixing errors now. I also knew how to lay out the UV maps for a large building a lot better and faster. Here are some pictures of the new setup with some placeholder textures for now (in unity, default lighting and just a fps control to sort of stroll around and get a look at things):

There is a lot more space to move in, which I believe will make programming an AI easier in addition to providing more interesting interactions. More room is useful for dodging or better chase game play.

Still have the exterior to do, and revising textures, but that should only take about a week or so. So that is what is next on the path to finishing off this level. Well a building with a lot of empty space. We will need to create some more models to make it look a little less empty!

And for my conclusion here is a cow model I whipped up in a couple days:

Turned out pretty good for the style we are working with. A bit of UV distortion on the horns, but that could just be fur. Still have not heard back about PAX, just that they were reviewing submissions. But even if we don't make the cut I want to finish some games and get some stuff out there anyways! There will be plenty of opportunities to show up and demo our game somewhere. See you next time in a week or two!

Over the last couple weeks I have been improving one of my creatures that I created. Both textures and animations. I would like to take a bit of time to look at how this creature evolved from its initial concept:

Initially we had a pretty simplistic chubby ghoul like thing... It was very rough around the edges, but the idea was there. The thoughts were: you know, chubby works but emaciated would be creepier and fur is in the concept so lets try that! The result:

We were getting closer to the concept but it still didn't look very scary or anywhere near real enough for what we were going for. So the decision was made to get rid of all the hair and revamp the texture maps one more time. We also decided to get rid of the mummy head look. In the meantime I had been studying how things were done from asset packs found on the Unity asset store and had learned some more tricks. I had also gotten a better handle on the style we were going for which was closer to realistic than I had initially thought. The result:

Now this guy has a lot of detail compared to the original maps. He looks grungier and there is a lot of wrinkle and vein action going on. Everyone agreed this would be our creature at this time. I did experiment with sculpting some to try and bring out some more subtle details but that did not go so well this time around. There was already a lot of detail there, and more just got lost amid all the other details.

The animations underwent similar changes. Gradually refining to what we were looking for. Through the evolution of this character I definitely learned a lot and improved many skills along the way. Unfortunately most of my time was devoted to one project here, but hopefully I can scrounge some for the other one very soon. See you next time, and hope you liked the creature talk post!

The new year so far

Alrighty, lots of stuff been getting done despite the holidays, though it is mostly filler items to make the scenes look less empty in the game. Stuff like beds, tvs, playground equipment. You kind of don't realize how many little things are around until you move in an environment that just doesn't have them. Here is a progress screenshot of those items:

Still a lot left, but it is a good start. We also have some help from the asset packs we purchased as well. Progress on the game itself is going pretty well, stuff coming together and the world slowly coming to life.

Switched over to my other project, it seems things have slowed down a lot over the holidays. People just up an vanishing for awhile hah. Still, I look forward to seeing more things get implemented there as well. After all the work last year both projects have a lot of the groundwork for a game already in place. My modelling skills have advanced to the point I am thinking about my own game again as well a bit. Just got to hit that coding wall at some point and just start doing things. In the meantime here is a sheep:

I look forward to doing another creature model this coming week along with some more filler.

House interiors, project updates

As the year comes to a close it is inevitable a lot of projects slow down a bit; but it doesn't really feel that way to me! One project I am doing is taking a two week sprint approach, which I didn't quite get if it was two sprint one break or what hah. Basically I just work at my own pace and usually find something to model or texture. The last couple weeks I have been wrapping up some house interiors:

These are some shots in unity with just some standard shaders and unlit textures. By no means does this represent a final look to the houses, just a general idea. Once the shaders are properly set up it looks a lot better. I just have a test ground so I can get a general idea of something in unity (other people have the project set up on their end).
next up are some shots of houses with sections hidden to get a little preview of layouts:

This is where my CAD background comes in pretty handy when it comes to creating houses! Still I am glad house interiors are done at the moment aside from maybe some texture tweaks. I definitely like making creatures a bit better. There is just a lot less elements to a creature. A house has tons of meshes (walls, doors, outlets, stairs etc.) while a creature generally only has a couple (body and head, maybe some clothes/armor). Same goes for textures to apply. Generally a house has around 12-15 textures, I have learned the hard way not to try to cram too much on one UV map. I mean you can put everything you want on it, but you either make it a huge resolution or everything looks like something seen through muddy water.

Finally I also got a snake done. Textures still a work in progress though:

Overall not too bad, the scales look a bit rough and messy though. Too hand drawn without much blending together. Then again, might work out if a player can't view it too close.

Anyway that concludes the rather large update! Trying to take it easy as the holidays and end of year come rushing in. Still learning tons and hitting up Udemy when I feel up for learning new stuff. Just the other day I even got a neat collect stuff type game set up pretty quick with my own stuff in Unity (well aside from code) which was neat. Hopefully I will post before next year but if not happy holidays all!

Another late update... Ah well lol. This time I have been spending a lot of time learning some of the finer points of rigging. I can't rely on pre-built skeletons forever! Aside from that I have still managed to get some models done for my two projects:

Perhaps black is not the best background... anyways a lot of this was texturing using a combination of textures I took pictures of and the freebies on CG textures. Painted some minor details with my tablet in photoshop as well, but for the most part it was adjusting images to work well the the maps I had laid out.

next up was a dog for my less realistic style game:

This texture is hand painted with the aid of photoshop and my tablet.
Still in progress, as I need to get some information on just what sort of animations this guy will have before I can finish up some edge loops. Might have something to do with why I am learning rigging hah! Next on the list is texturing another house and learning some more about rigging. Maybe I can even get something animated with my very own custom rig soon.

Whoops went and forgot about the blog again... I am terrible at this updating thing. It isn't because I have nothing to post but more I am just so busy. Now, some things I can't really show because rather than rendering out animations and posting them on youtube I have been just previewing in unity. Let it be said that there was a lot of animation reworks and improvements on one game. Also, got some more house models knocked out, though they are not textured yet. We got a new guy that may be able to help with some of the 3D work and I am letting him take a shot at that.

So far we plan on getting stuff at least semi decent and possibly going to PAX for a demo. Wish us luck there. The submission deadline will be tight but hopefully we make it.

As for my other project... I can't really say much about the status other than progress is a bit slow at this time. I really hope some decisions get made and we can move forward with some things but alas I am not really a decision maker, I am just the guy who works with 3D assets. Here are some bunnies in the meantime:

Probably not all the variations but good enough for now! This week I will probably move on to another creature and keep an eye out for more animation work. Probably a good idea to check in tomorrow and see what is up.

Alright, almost got wrapped up in work and forgot to update this again. I want to talk a bit about my unity works scene I have been building... At this point due to various agreements it will probably won't be something most people can tour for quite some time. However, it is still neat to get an overall view of all the accomplishments this year so far:

It is actually starting to look like enough assets for a small game now! roads, houses, a building, some rocks. Too bad I would need to animate a bunch of stuff and program a ton to do that though hah; that is why I have been working with teams though. I do like walking through here from time to time just to see how things are looking though. Get a feel for how they might appear in engine. Most of all though it is cool seeing skills improving and stuff getting to a finished if not fully polished state. I might still come back to some and update textures or add details at some point.

Anyways enough nostalgia for now, and lets zoom in on one of the assets I have been working on:

Another house! I am generally really happy with the exterior here. The interior might need a bit more cleanup we will see though (I also am not sure about that white paint inside, even though it does look great outside). Overall though it is looking fairly good!

Anyways, that ends this blog entry. A lot better in terms of an update now that it has been a bit less busy. I try to model/texture something every day, though I also don't want to burn out on certain things. Doing mundane stuff like houses for a week on end can really take it out of you. Anyways I could ramble on about things but I think I will keep it at that for this update!

Well still a lot of stuff in the works but things seem to be quieting down a bit now. Had some challenging models the last couple days as well as some quick ones. A lot of hospital props done:

Still lots more to go. Probably moving on to working on houses soon. Feeling a bit worn out today, so perhaps I will take it easy. Just thought I would post and say everything is moving along quite nicely, and I am pretty happy with how my modeling and texture skills have progressed so far.

Whew tons of stuff done. It was interesting working in a basically on demand environment; most assignments were hey we need this now who can work on it? Another example was: you know, it would be really awesome if this could be done by insert date here. The other thing that was cool about the tight deadlines is we got to see a lot of progress as things were rapidly updated as well. The side effect of all this was a lot of rapid improvement and experimentation with the tools and pipeline to get content to a usable state asap. I don't think I would like to work in such a frenzied state all the time, but for short stretches it is neat to see so much being done in such a short time frame. Anyways, enough with the writing time for some pictures! We have texture refinements, and a new creature among other things.

this is a pic of a flat color stage of a sort of undead ogre concept.

as I moved forward with the concept I also looked at some grim reaper images and tried to incorporate that sort of look to it as well. So in the end we have a undead ogre reaper basically, hopefully he turns out to be a formidable foe hah. It was completed and rigged in a mere four days, so I am sure some refining might be in the works at some later date. Look forward to seeing our games progress even more this month on facebook at Age of Aincrad and Infinitude studios.

Tons of stuff happening. It is pretty much crunch time as a lot of deadlines in October. Anyways lets kick it off with some finished stuff then move on to some in progress:

We have a goblin chief and a hospital interior. Larges textures done, but need to fill it with all the nice details like wall railings and interior windows.

Also, working on some hair model/textures:

Still could use some cleanup, but the base isn't half bad so far. Hopefully have time to give another update before too long... but going to be buried in work the next couple weeks.

3D models new and old!

Whew, been a couple weeks. Most of the time was spent on a new building for a game project. At this time it is just a basic exterior and interior, and only the exterior has textures. Personally I find buildings a bit harder than characters. There are a lot more elements to make up a building, and I find myself thinking about a lot of those elements and how I want them to come together in the end. This hospital in its basic form comes out to about 40k poly.

The top picture is a more finished prototype for the game while the bottom is a different idea for the texture and some close ups of the details.

The other model I started working on a couple days ago is a leader for a goblin tribe:

it is modified from the basic goblin mesh with some accessories added on. The additions only add 400 poly as well; not bad! (the textures need to be fixed a bit, this is just a base mesh so far).

The next couple weeks look like more buildings and refining that goblin chief a bit more. Tune in next time for more updates!

Well time for another update! First up is a character concept I have been working on:

some various techniques at work here including projection mapping and my usual method of overlays and just trying to get a semi realistic look. No normal maps yet, but not bad so far.

next up is the beetles for my other project:

The 1st picture came out a bit better overall... I think the second beetle has too many colors which makes it look a little odd. More refining probably in order but we will see what the team says.

I prefer a less realistic style overall, but it is great to be learning about both at the same time with these projects. I definitely recommend a less realistic style for most initial indie projects based on my experience so far.

Alright a bit of a slow week this time around, mainly updating textures:

Added more detail to the car textures. Also, the people I am working with are setting up facebook and such at https://www.facebook.com/Infinitudestudios?fref=ts
Things are moving right along with the game and I look forward to seeing more come together. Currently working on a character model for them.

Next up is a bug model. Going to get this checked out and see if it will work. Might square off the bottom of the legs to make the texture smoother, but it is a fairly small creature.

Alright, still pretty busy despite finishing that contest game (could still use some votes! http://contest.gamedevfort.com/submission/235#.VcohgflFauQ). I know I said I would do a preview of a game in progress, but on consulting with the team they said it was a bit too rough to do that right now. We did purchase an asset pack and I was able to look at an interesting way to do textures, which resulted in more detail:

Unfortunately this meant I needed to redo this set of textures/uv maps. But it was probably worth it haha, still a matter of trial and error for me to get the right amount of detail in a large model like a house. Basically this went from 3 maps to 7.

As for my other project we have a nice simple deer that only took about 8 hours all told.

Keep in mind this is meant to be a cartoony simplistic style. Which means no sculpting or normal maps. The hardest part was probably getting the antlers to look decent. Onward to more models and textures this week!

After banging my head against the wall and fiddling with gameguru a lot I managed to get a nice short adventure cobbled together. First 3D game! The adventure is meant to be sort of a prequel for a much bigger idea (that is if the evil route is chosen). Some previews and even the game can be found here: http://contest.gamedevfort.com/submission/235#.VbuZ8PlFauQ

Wish everyone luck in the contest, but really it was great just to create a game in a short amount of time. Still have a lot to learn, but each model or project is one step closer to making that dream game a reality.

Oh and here is a car model as well. Very rough and lacking a lot of details, but coming along nicely!

The tires are a bit blocky, but we will probably remove them anyways. Main thing I want to improve is the lights and seats since a door will be missing as well! I actually need to fire up bandicam and get a good preview of this game up, that is next on the list.

Gameguru, my thoughts.

I have been taking a break from 3D modeling to actually prototype some game concepts that I have been thinking about. This was brought about by the Humble bundle and all those awesome tools my friend pointed out to me! I may even enter that 2015 contest, I certainly am making some good progress towards that end. That is not to say I am giving up those other projects, in fact one seems to be coming along quite well. The other is still really big an a distant thing but it has a lot of potential.

Anyways without further ado on to Gameguru the easy game maker and some screenshots of what I have managed to create so far:

This is an overview of my level so far. We have a cave, two towns and some ruins. I opted for trying to make a seamless game with less loading times.

Some shots of the cave area. I opted to sculpt it and most of my level out of terrain due to various AI issues. Basically the default AI can have a lot of issues with objects that are not terrain (mainly not liking to walk on or around them very well). Seeing as I have very little experience with programming I have had to design around what gameguru gives me to work with for now. Also, due to the limited time frame I have to work with if I want to enter the contest most of the content I made is going to use sound zones with my voice driving the story.

I decided to take gameguru at its word, and see what I could throw together with what I got in the packs for it. Something to consider is that since it was originally a fps creator, that is what the default settings are at. As such, melee weapons have to be treated like really short range guns, aka damage is done at the center of the cross hairs; you don't really have a cone or frontal area effect you would expect of most melee weapons. The player collisions are actually very well done, so moving around should be a breeze. However this has a downside: the player can get some very interesting places if you are not extremely careful with level design, especially terrain. Your best bet if in doubt is to make it so the player falls to their death or something if they are going somewhere you might not want them to go.

On to the default ai: Gameguru's default ai needs some work. My advice is to try some models/animations and see if they work for your game concept. Some hit boxes can be odd and very counter intuitive making some mobs seem invincible. Some mobs fall through the world very easily or get stuck worse than others. Damage can be kind of wonky too, even by tweaking settings I still have certain mobs one or two shot me. Again, experiment to see what default models/ai seem feasible. Most humanoid or close to human size creatures work fairly well.


Finally lets look at the models. I have to hand it to them, most look pretty dang good. No real complaints with them except the default AI issues. Some animations look a bit stiff or weird, but the texture maps seem fairly good.

Whew that was a book hah. Sorry about writing so much. If you have any other questions about my experiences with gameguru let me know and I will try to help. They also have a great community to fall back on if you are having trouble.

Too long to read version:
pros:
gameguru seems good for throwing together something with a fps type perspective.
terrain and models are quick to create/throw in and use.
you can create some enemies that move around and attack quickly.
trigger zones allow one to make events or play sounds easily
models look fairly good
simple interface

cons:
without programming experience you are very limited in what you can do on your own
can be hard to limit player movement (no invisible walls)
enemies can easily get stuck or glitched.
with a simple interface comes many limitations (positioning objects can be tough sometimes for example).
load times can be pretty long with multiple levels.

Wow... a lot has been happening the last week or so. Lets see... I finished up a couple models:

Hm, need a more up to date shot of the interior textures... we decided those were terrible and updated them lol.. Ah well I am sure I will get a picture eventually anyways. In addition, also got some animations done pretty quick too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpKH8odIWKg

Overall a very productive period of time... And this isn't even all of what I managed to get done. Also did a quick rocking chair animation and shattered picture. Onward to more modeling and stuff!

actually thinking of converting this to a sort of video or play through update... I will let you know how it goes. Did a short demo of some of the things I have been working with and it seems a bit funner than just writing about it.

Thinking about making a sort of gallery of the work and allowing someone to "play" and look around on their own.